Runaways
by Eveningbreeze of SkyClan
Summary: What happens when four teenagers leave home and somehow get sucked into the world of Sly Cooper? Rated T for violence, mildcensored language, and one drug reference. Supernatural comes in later. Chapter 14 has finally gone up...
1. Chapter 1: When to Leave Home

_**Runaways**_

By: RatchetSlyBurnout

_Hi people, this is my 1st fanfic I hope you like it... and no, Sly isn't in the first chapter, so don't ask... oh yeah, review plz!_

Chapter 1: When to Leave Home

Melody's bedroom door slammed shut as she stormed into her room. She threw herself onto her bed, and glared at the ceiling. A steady stream of curse words flew through her head.

Her latest fight with her parents hadn't ended well. They said that she shouldn't be friends with "common people", just be friends with the other kids from rich families like theirs. That wouldn't happen, as most of said rich kids were snobbish ahs. And Melody wasn't exactly a popular teen to start with... After all, when she saw one of the popular crowd punch a kid in the gut, she told him to leave the kid alone. The thug just shoved her into a locker and continued bullying the kid... until Melody punched him in the face, breaking the bully's nose. And that was how she had gotten on the wrong side of the popular kids. It was also the first lecture, for beating someone up, from her parents, because this bully was another rich kid.

Her only real friends were also not exactly having a good life... they'd said come with her if she ran away. Her friends' names were Amy, Darren, and Mark.

Amy and Darren O'Neil were twin siblings, so they both had the same straight pitch-black hair that seemed to just absorb any light that fell on it. That was about the only way to tell they were twins, aside from their faces.

Amy wore all black clothes. Black pants, black socks, black shoes, black jacket. Which only made the bright orange t-shirt she wore under her jacket even more noticeable.

Darren, on the other hand, wore bright yellow, blue, and green.

Mark Hamilton, the only one of the group to have sandy blond hair, wore navy jeans, a blue jacket, and whatever t-shirt he had happened to grab from his drawer.

And finally, Melody Cortez was wearing her usual black jeans, blood-red t-shirt, and red bandana. Her hair was brown, straight, and reached her elbows.

Melody got up from her bed and grabbed her cell phone. She dialed 875-4567 and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mark"

"Oh, hi, Mel"

"Do you have your stuff packed? 'Cuz we're leaving tonight"

At his house, Mark looked out the window. It was dark outside. "Yeah, almost, I can be there in ten minutes if you want"

"Great, I'll phone Amy 'n' Dare. See ya soon"

"Sure. Bye" _Click._

Ten minutes later, the four teens were gathered outside the garage on the Cortez estate. The garage was well hidden in the woods.

"So," said Darren. "Where are we going?"

"Remember that summer cottage that's for sale? Good. That's where we're staying tonight" replied Melody. She opened a garage door. "Choose any car you want."

The amount of expensive, exotic, and/or rare cars was breathtaking. Audis, Ferraris, Porsches, you name it.

The group of fourteen-year-olds had secretly been learning how to drive using these bankbreakers, so they each knew which was their favorite. Melody took a black Porsche with realistic-looking flames painted on the front; Mark took a deep blue Charger with plenty of chrome on the front and back; Amy took a black Ferrari (what a shock) ; Darren took a Lambourgini. They drove out of the garage, and didn't look back.

Twenty minutes later, over the speakerphone that connected all four cars, Amy asked Melody something.

"Mel, knowing you, you did something that would delay a search for you."

"Yeah, so?"

"What did you do?"

"Umm... You know what caps are?"

"Yeah, they're capsules of fake blood... jeez, you're not serious, are you?"

"Yes, I am. I took a full cap and shot it. And I left a fake suicide note, for good measure"

"Wow, that's... going overboard"

Mark came on. "Well, it's a good delay tactic. Anyway, we're here" And so they were. The cabin was far back in the woods, so it would be hard to find them.

"Park 'em in the back, okay?"

It was 12:59 at night. All four teens were asleep. The digital clock was still glaring red. One minute later, it should have said 1:00. It didn't.

13:00. Then...

1:01. The clock continued counting the minutes. But nobody would wake up to see it.

The cabin was empty.

_Okay, people, this chapter's done... Please review my story. Oh, and 875-4567 is a not real phone number. REVIEW PLZ!_


	2. Chapter 2: Morning

_Runaways_

_Hi people, I'm back. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far... here's Chapter 2._

Chapter 2: Morning

Amy wasn't much of a heavy sleeper, so when the alarm on the clock went off, she was woken up. She quickly discovered she had a headache.

She opened one eye and glared at the clock. Every time the alarm _beep_ed again, it felt like a knife was being driven into her head. She hit the snooze button on the clock. And then stared at her hand.

_Her hand was covered in fur._

It was a bit of a surprise, but her headache had the most of her attention. She got out of the bed, and noticed she wasn't in the cabin bedroom anymore. She was in a hotel room.

Once again, she didn't really care. She could find a reason after she had taken an aspirin.

Amy went to the closet in the entry and rummaged through the knapsack she'd put most of her stuff in. She found the aspirin in one of the outer pockets. She took a tablet out, and took it with her into the bathroom.

As she filled up a plastic glass with tap water, she noticed her face in the mirror. Amy glanced up.

Her face wasn't human anymore. She looked like a black-furred cat. _Well, at least I've still got the same clothes on, _she thought. She'd gone to bed in her street clothes.

She turned the tap off, put the tablet in her mouth, and took a swig of water. Amy was slightly shocked at how little the fact she wasn't human anymore didn't matter.

She vaguely heard the alarm go off in the room next door, and Melody's grumblings at being woken up this early. She also heard Melody's sharp gasp.

_So it happened to her, too. Great._

Amy's cell phone went off in her jeans pocket. She picked it up. "Hello?"

Unsurprisingly, it was Melody. "Hi, Amy. Umm... I've got a question..."

"Lemme guess... you're not human."

"How'd you know?"

"I'm looking in the mirror right now. Three guesses what I see."

"Hey, three guesses at what _I_ look like."

"A cat?"

"Hell no. I look like a fr--gin' fox."

"Good for you. I'm some sort of cat. Oh, and, we're in a hotel."

"I noticed. So I'll see you in the lobby." _Click._

_Wonder what happened to Mark and Darren, _she thought.

_Yeah, I know it's sorta short. It's still my 1st fic, so don't grill me for screwing up too much, and Sly will be in the next Chapter._ _REVIEW!_


	3. Chapter 3: Night

_**Runaways**_

_Hi again, thx to all the people who reviewed. And yes, this is the 3rd chapter if you're not paying attention. So..._

Chapter 3: Night

It was 9:30 p.m. Mark had the TV in his room on, but wasn't paying any attention whatsoever to the show.

He was thinking about what had happened this morning when he woke up. Discovering he wasn't in the cabin was a surprise; discovering he wasn't human was a downright shock. He'd stayed in his room until he was bored, and had gone down into the hotel lobby. He'd found Melody and Amy playing a card game named Diamonds. They asked him if he'd seen Darren anywhere. He hadn't.

If the three of them handled the switch from human to, well, _whatever animal-like things_ they were now very well, then Darren had definitely had the worst reaction.

Darren had had a meltdown, locking himself in his room, not coming out, or letting anyone in. Not even the room service person who came by. He still hadn't come out.

Mark got up, turned the TV off. He was going to check if any of his stuff that he'd packed had disappeared.

-----------

Meanwhile, in an alley near the hotel, a van was parked. A figure slipped out of the back doors, and started climbing a water pipe to the top of the building.

Now that he was on the roof of an adjacent building, Sly took out him binocucom and listened as Bentley told him where their target was.

"Sly, we're after a priceless Ming vase that was stolen from a local art gallery. The guy who wanted it is called The Hunter. He's a drug lord from the U.S.A."

"Alright, what room is he in?"

"I've narrowed it down to two rooms: room 317 and room 328. Search them both really well, Sly, it could be hidden anywhere."

"Does he have any security in there?"

"Umm... I believe he has the security guards on that floor on the payroll. Be careful, they're probably going to have more firepower with them then usual."

"Thanks. I'll call if anything happens." Sly put the binocucom away, and started for the hotel's front sign, which had several insulated power lines leading up the side.

-----------

Mark was looking through his backpack to see if anything had disappeared. So far, everything was there. Clothes, CDs, CD player, toothbrush... Then his hand hit something metal. He frowned.

_I didn't pack anything metal..._

He brought out whatever the thing was. It was a gun. It looked like a double-barreled pistol.

_What the hell..._ Mark was confused. _Where did this come from?_

Then he heard the window slid open. He ducked into the closet, leaving it slightly open, so he could see out.

-----------

Sly came in through the window of room 317. It looked like a teenager's room, judging from the backpack lying on the floor.

_This isn't the right one, _thought Sly. The Hunter, or whatever his name was, had a reputation of being very... extravagant.

Sly headed for the door to the hallway.

Mark saw a shadow pass the closet door. He opened it quietly, and walked out. There was a raccoon in a burglar outfit opening the hall door. He snuck up behind the figure and whispered, "_Boo_."

Sly jumped about a meter into the air. There was someone unknown behind him. He span around, aiming the cane where he guessed the guy's midriff was.

Mark slid backwards, the cane missing him by a millimeter. He raised the gun, which he knew was empty. "Who're you?"

Sly froze. He was at point-blank range; a bullet would find it's mark if the guy shot the pistol.

Mark asked again, "Who are you?"

Sly decided to tell this kid; he still had the gun pointed at him. "The name's Sly Cooper. Your name?"

"Mark Hamilton. What'd you take?"

"Nothing. I was going to someone else's room."

Mark relaxed a little, lowered the gun. "Who's?"

"A drug lord's, named The Hunter."

Mark had heard of this guy before. He had been in the news a week before he ran away. And he'd recognized him in the lobby, surrounded with guards. "Room 328."

Sly vanished down the hall.

_That was weird. _Mark closed his door. He could still hear Darren mumbling to himself in his room through the thin walls.

_Sorry people, this chapter would've been up yesterday, but my internet was screwed up. REVIEW! _

_P.S. If you haven't already, erickdragon101's story, Stalker, is really good, read it!_


	4. Chapter 4: The Hunter's Demise

_**Runaways**_

_Once again, I've got a Chapter done. Thanks to all... six, I think, of my reviewers so far._

Chapter 4: The Hunter's Demise

Richard Driscoll was walking through the park near Paris, at about 2:00 in the morning. His bodyguard, a lion named Azizi, was strolling alongside him, throwing a long shadow in the streetlights' gaze.

Richard, or The Hunter, as he was known in the underground, was a weasel in a very bad mood. The Ming vase he'd had stolen had disappeared. He was sure he'd covered his track well enough so no-one could pin it on him, or steal it from him. He'd even had the thief who stole it for him shot, so he couldn't squeal.

Richard had tricked, bribed, and lied his way to the top of his now-global drug empire. And if anyone got in his way, no matter which side of the law they were on, was assassinated. Police officers, crime lords, businessmen. All of them. The weasel had made a lot of enemies.

He snapped out of his trance and said to his bodyguard "Stay here."

Azizi raised an eyebrow. "Sir, you said my job was to stay with you at all times."

Richard snapped at him "You're making me look more suspicious than I need. Stay here, I'll be back." And he promptly walked off.

Azizi shrugged and sat down on a bench, drumming his fingers on the handle of his revolver.

--------

Richard had been walking for a short while when he saw someone sitting on a bench. As he got closer, he saw it was a 17-year-old vixen, reading a book.

She looked up and said "Hello Richard."She pulled a gun out of her purse.

Richard had already recognized who the vixen was. He'd ordered the murder of her parents two years ago. He was running in the direction he'd came, bark toward Azizi.

He wasn't fast enough. Two bullets hit him in the back of his legs, shattering both his kneecaps. He collapsed onto the ground.

Richard was still trying to crawl away using his arms when a foot pressed down on his back. Hard. "Where are you going so soon?"

Richard was panicking. "You're going to shoot me, aren't you."

The vixen laughed. "Of course not."

Richard heard the sound of a knife being pulled from its sheath. He screamed.

--------

Azizi heard Richard's strangled yell. He ran as fast as he could to the source of his boss's scream.

What he found horrified him.

Richard's body was laying in the middle of the path. The fingers on his hands had been sliced off, in a perfectly straight line. His head had also been sliced off in the same way. It was nowhere in sight.

Azizi felt sick; he could taste bile in his mouth. He ran into the trees nearby, and vomited.

He stumbled over a fallen branch on the way out of the woods. There was an eye lying on the ground, the white optic nerve still attached. He felt sick again.

--------

The police report said that they were dealing with a serial killer. The note that they found next to the body said "One down nine to go -J.A.". Those initials were carved into Richard's back.

_Well, that's Chapter 4 done, and I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't read Michael Chrichton_ _for a while. I'm starting to write like him sorta... oh well. REVIEWS!_

_P.S.- Since I ended the last Chapter with a fic recommendation, I may as well tell you another good one. St. Martin's, by decemberbliss, is a great story. It's a fic for the Redwall books set today and not in the medieval times for once. _


	5. Chapter 5: Friends

_**Runaways**_

_I have nothing to_ _say here, besides the usual thanks to my reviewers. (Hi Nee Knight, hi erickdragon, and the rest of you.)_

Chapter 5: Friends

It was now a week since the four runaways had woken up in the hotel.

They had no gotten used to the fact that they, as well as everyone else, were bipedal animals. Melody was a fox, Mark was an otter, Amy was a black cat, Darren was a grey cat.

At least they'd made friends with a group of local teens, most of whom were orphaned or fellow runaways.

Kuma was a small bear, 14 years old, and was easily worked up. He'd left home when he was 12, so he knew his way around.

Violet Akio, 14, and her older sister Jade Akio, 17, were both foxes. Violet was forever wearing purple clothes (she even had purple contact lenses, just because they looked neat), and was a bit of a jokester.

Jade was definitely the creepiest of the entire group. She had been born with all-white fur, but now she'd dyed it a pale, pearlescent green wherever it was supposed to be red. She also only wore black clothes, and was not exactly a positive person.

Both sisters always changed the subject when someone asked about their parents.

Jay Atkinson, 19, was an otter who was one of those people who didn't speak very much, but he was very strong and smart. If the group planned to do anything, he'd most likely be the mastermind.

David Brooks was a 15-year-old prodigy who had already made a bundle of money from a web search program he'd made himself for the internet that was more efficient than all others. He was another one of the planners for the group. He was a collie, and was an extremely nervous person.

Finally, there was Jenny Arden, a 17-year-old fox, who was a very cheerful, upbeat teen. She was always dressed in very bright colored clothes. However, she never said what had happened to her parents.

_Well, that's my intro for the rest of the characters... notice two of them are vixens with the initials J. A. ?_


	6. Chapter 6: The Plan

_**Runaways**_

_Chapter 6. Whoop-de-freakin'-doo_. _Oh, and this takes place in Paris during the 2nd game, if you haven't guessed yet._

Chapter 6: The Plan

The group of teens was sitting at a circular table in a room in David's apartment. They were there to plan a theft of a very unique piece of a counterfeit money machine.

David was typing something on his computer. A slide appeared on the big screen behind him. It was a photo of a nightclub.

"The guy who owns this nightclub's name is Dimitri. He's a forger, and got a money-printing machine under the nightclub" said David. He clicked something, and the image changed; now it showed the machine. "The metal he's using for the printing plates is some alloy that hasn't rusted, or even shown wear, for the last two years of constant use."

The screen faded out to a close-up of the plates. "They're called Clockwerk Tailfeathers, because they were once part of a giant robotic owl named Clockwerk."

"I don't care where they're from," said Melody. She was getting impatient. "How do we get at them and what do we want them for?"

David didn't say anything, so Jay answered. "We want them because they're strong and won't wear down. If someone were to, say, _patent_ something like that, they'd get very rich very quickly." he said patiently.

"Exactly. So, how difficult will this job be?" said Jade.

"Depends on how much security we can eliminate. He's got a big security network, as well as a lot of guards..." David frowned. "This could not even start to work if all his guards are here. Anyone want to volunteer to ruin the guards' main residence? That'll make most of them have to leave to find a new spot to live, hopefully one too far away for them to get to the printing press immediately. We'll need five people."

Seven of them volunteered: Kuma, Melody, Violet, Jay, Mark, Amy, and Jade.

"Sorry, Jay, you can't go, I've gotta talk to you about something. Kuma, Violet, Jade... it's Melody, right? O.K., good, and Mark, you get to go."

David shut off the computer.

Jay said "Alright, you five, you know what to do. Get going." And with that, he left.

Amy glanced at Darren, shrugged, and left with the others.

Jennie watched them go. She hadn't been paying much attention. She had other things on her mind.

But then, so had Jade. She'd been planning something as well.

_Another short Chapter... Don't worry, the next one will be longer._ _And, if you're wondering, Sly will be in Chapter 9 next._


	7. Chapter 7: Setting the Charges

_**Runaways**_

_Wow, that was a lot of reviews thrown at my head. Good thing none of 'em knocked me out... Anyway, I think I was typing way too fast, because it was supposed to say Sly would be in Chapter 7, not 9. Sorry about that. I feel like a complete idiot._

Chapter 7: Setting the Charges

The two cars were parked in a garage not far from where the guards' residence was. The occupants of the cars were bored, waiting for the time that the guards would all be asleep.

Kuma was in the back of the blue Volkswagen Jetta, playing _Burnout Legends_ on his PSP. Jade and Mark were in front. Jade was snoring quietly, and Mark was writing in a notebook, the pencil making faint scratching noises.

Melody and Violet were in the black Porsche that Melody had taken from her parents' garage. They were talking, about nothing in particular, although at one point Melody started ranting about how screwed up the world was. Violet agreed with most of the stuff she said.

It was 11:30 pm. They were waiting for 12:30.

Time was going very slowly.

--------

It was 12:15. A blue van was parked in an alley next to an old three-story building in an abandoned industrial park.

Sly was already inside the residence, on the second floor. "Where do I go from here?"

Bentley answered almost immediately. "Get the fire escape doors on the side of the building unlocked, so Murray and I can get in."

Sly looked around. The red EXIT sign was to his ;eft, above the fire exit door. "Won't the alarm go off if I open that door?"

"No, I hacked the security system, so it won't go off. And all of the security cameras are offline too."

Sly opened the door. Murray and Bentley were already there.

--------

The clock in Melody's car said 12:20. She turned on the com system that connected the cars. "You three awake?"

She heard Jade swear faintly over the com line. Apparently she'd fallen asleep. She heard Kuma say "Now we are."

"Good. We're going now"

"It's still ten minutes early!" said Mark.

"If any of those guards are still awake now," said Violet, "they'll still be awake in ten minutes. It won't make a difference."

The Jetta reversed out of the parking lot. Melody followed it out.

--------

The Cooper gang were on the third floor. Bentley was setting up a small bomb that would weaken the pillar, making it collapse two or three minutes after the blast. Sly and Murray were beating up any guards who came to investigate. Things were going well, so far.

--------

The five teens were in the bottom floor, setting up a mini-nuke that would most likely flatten the building, as well as the old warehouses around it. Things weren't going well at all.

The reason only a few guards were going up to the Cooper gang was that most of the were going down to the basement to 'remove' the teenagers. The amount of bullets flying around reminded Violet of those high-budget, no-story action movies.

--------

Bentley had successfully set up the small bomb on the pillar on the third floor. They moved down to the second floor, and then they heard the _pop_ of gunfire coming from the basement.

It was making Bentley very nervous; he didn't want to be stuck in the middle of a gang war. "I think we should leave, guys."

Sly was about to say _No, we're going to finish this_ when a minor explosion rocked the building, knocking them off their feet. "Yeah, we're going to go."

--------

_Jeez, _thought Jade. _Any closer and that would've set the entire thing off._ One of the guards had shot a grenade that was lying on the floor. She guessed being that close to an explosion wasn't good for her ears, which were now ringing. She ducked behind a crate to avoid the bullets that were coming at her head, waited a second, and popped back out, shooting in the guard's direction.

The cut-off yell told Jade she'd hit him. "Nice one," yelled Melody from across the room, putting a fresh clip into her gun.

"It'sup!" yelled Kuma, moving away from the pillar and toward the door. They all followed.

--------

They had parked the cars in an alley away from the blast radius, so they wouldn't go up in flames. Jade was on the roof on the building next to them, filming the soon-to-happen explosion with a digital camcorder. None of the four in the alley noticed the blue van parked behind the cars right away.

"Those guards," said Mark, "have the sh--tiest aim in the world."

"Only slightly worse than yours, in other words," said Melody, laughing. She ducked the punch Mark aimed at her easily.

It was Violet who noticed the van first. "Where'd that come from?" she asked, pointing.

Kuma looked at it. "Dunno, wasn't there when we parked."

"Of course it wasn't," said a voice that came from behind them. They turned. A raccoon was standing there.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Melody tersely.

"Sly Cooper. I believe I met you before," he said, gesturing to Mark.

They didn't get to say anything else, as the explosion from the guards' residence shook the ground.

Violet was the first to recover. "Nice mushroom cloud."

"That was _loud_," said Kuma. His ears hurt.

"So I take it you were the ones in the basement? We heard you from the second floor." said Sly.

"_We_?" asked Melody.

"You didn't think I was the only one in the Cooper gang, did you?"

Jade landed silently on the ground next to them. "Got it... who are you?"

And that was how the five teens met Sly Cooper.

_There, this one is done. NOW the next chapter with Sly in it is Chapter 9._


	8. Chapter 8: The Gambler's Ruin

_**Runaways**_

_I have absolutely nothing to say. Well, nothing besides the usual crap. So..._

Chapter 8: The Gambler's Ruin

David Brooks and Jay Atkinson were walking in the park. It was now a day after the bombing mission had succeeded, and it was 11:09 pm.

David had wanted to talk to Jay about something that he thought could potentially get the entire group killed or arrested; the J.A. killer.

"I still don't know why you're so worked up about this. It's not going to affect the heist," said Jay.

"I'll explain again. This could be, most likely _is,_ going to end badly for us. I searched the population archives on the government's files for Paris. There are hundreds of people with the initials J.A. Like you, for example."

"Hey..."

"But according to the police file, there was some DNA, a hair actually, that came from a fox. So, I searched again, for foxes with those initials."

"And? How many?"

David shook his head. "Only three names came up: Jonathan Atwood, Jade Akio, and Jenny Arden. I could eliminate Jonathan right away, as he's a two-year-old. So the nominees for murderer are Jade and Jenny."

"Great. But why would this get _us_ killed? Or arrested?"

David shot him a look. "It could get us arrested because we're trying to steal a heavily guarded artifact from someone. Plus, remember the car selling ring, where we'd hotwire expensive cars, put them in shipping containers, and send them off to Hong Kong for twenty thousand each? That would put us in the slammer for a while."

"Oh, yeah. But killed?"

David sighed. "Have you ever heard of a phenomenon called the Gambler's Ruin?"

--------

Lewis King was wide awake in his apartment, watching TV. He was one of the two wolves who were now heading the Hunter's drug empire, now that he was dead.

King had always hated being second best, or having to share the limelight with someone else. So he had a contract killer paid to kill off the other guy, Jeremy Holtz. He hated that self-absorbed, confident little b-----d. Always in his way.

Lewis knew he should be asleep right now, but some habits didn't go away. His insomnia was back again, as well as his addiction to "uppers", a type of drug that kept him wired for several hours each time he injected it in his arm. God, rehab was a waste of his money.

Every time he took uppers, though, he had to take more in order to get the same effect. King now had to take so much drugs that it made him feel sick, which was why he had a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in with his needles.

He heard a knock on the door. "What?" he yelled.

"It's Shirley. Open the door." Shirley was one of the sellers. Probably wanted to know where they'd moved storehouse now.

"Sure. One second." he hollered. Then, quieter, to himself, he muttered, "Retarded b----."

He went for the door.

--------

"The Gambler's Ruin," said David, "is a notorious phenomenon that has huge effects on everyday life. Say you're a gambler, and you're playing a coin-toss game. Every time it's heads, you win a dollar. Tails, you lose a dollar."

"Yeah..." said Jay, ducking a tree branch.

"What will always eventually happen?"

"Well, the chances of getting heads or tails is 50-50, so it's equal chances you'll win or lose. But you'll come out at zero in the end."

"Unfortunately, you don't," said David. "If you gamble long enough, you'll _always_ lose. That's why casinos are still in business. But the question is, what happens over time? What happens in the period before the gambler is ruined?"

Jay gave up. "What happens?"

"If you chart the gambler's progress over time, you'll see that the gambler wins for a while, loses for a while. In other words, everything comes in streaks. Everything. Weather, baseball, stock markets, everything. Once things go bad, they stay bad. Like the old saying 'Bad things come in threes'. It's right. Bad things cluster. Things will go to hell together. And that's why I'm worried."

"Because whoever the killer is might turn on us?" Jay asked. He got it now.

"Will turn on us, Jay. Will. It's only a matter of time."

--------

It wasn't Shirley at the door. It was some 17-year-old vixen. "Who the hell are you?" asked King.

She didn't answer. Instead, she pulled a knife and stabbed him in the arm. He drew his arm back, swearing violently. Then King collapsed onto the floor.

The vixen smiled at him. "Don't think that yelling will help you. This thing is poisoned, it'll paralyze you for a while. You cant even scream."

And with that, she dragged him back into the apartment.

--------

Lewis R. King's body was discovered by a colleague who phoned in anonymously. The scene was something out of a horror movie.

King was lying on his back in his kitchen, his dead eyes staring at the ceiling. His chest had been slashed open, and most of his organs had been removed. They were later found inside his refrigerator.

And written in blood on the wall was the message "Two down, eight left -J.A."

_Another slasher Chapter. Lovely, what J.A. is doing to targets, isn't it? Yeah, I don't think so either. REVIEWS!_

_P.S.-_ _Anyone else want a sequel to Stalkers? hinthint_


	9. Chapter 9: Checking the Wires

_**Runaways**_

_Hello once again. Thanks to the **ONLY** person who's reviewing the newer chapters, erickdragon101. Octovarivous_

_Kaiser Scott is officially an $$hole, just so you all know._

Chapter 9: Checking the Wires

"_You know the way that things go_

_When what you fight for starts to fall..._

_And in that fuzzy picture_

_The writing stands out on the wall_

_So clearly on the wall"_

"Will you turn that off!"

"No."

Amy reached over and turned off the CD player.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Jenny.

"I told you to turn it off five times," said Amy, "and you didn't."

"Sorry, then. I thought you liked Peter Gabriel."

"I do, you've just been playing that damn song over and over again for the last hour."

The entire group of teens were at David's apartment again, waiting for Jay, David, and Jade to finish with their plan, whatever it was, inside the study.

Amy, Jenny, Mark, and Darren were all playing cards at the dining room table; Melody, Kuma, and Violet were in the living room, screwing around with the instruments they'd brought. Melody had an electric guitar, Kuma was pounding away on his drumset, and Violet was messing with her keyboard. It was slightly annoying, but it could have sounded a lot worse. At least they were all working on the same song.

Darren was bored beyond belief, which wasn't much of a surprise; he'd been left out of the majority of the missions that they'd done. He thought they just ignored him, but in reality, the reason why was he hardly volunteered at all.

Melody started belting out one of her favorite songs, Holidayby Green Day. _She will never shut up, _he thought.

The door of the study opened. "Ready."

--------

David was explaining the plan. "The printing press room is filled with more security than what we saw the last time, so we're going to have to take some out again." The last heist they'd pulled off didn't require any security to be turned off, as the only obstacles were guards who would leave for ten minutes between shifts, making it very easy to stroll in, take the loot, stroll out.

"At least this means that Dimitri's not completely brain dead," said Violet.

"I wouldn't say that yet," replied Jade, glancing at her little sister.

David resumed speaking. "One of the most important things to get offline is the motion detectors. As soon as someone steps into the room, they'll get pummeled by machine gun fire unless the detectors are turned off."

Another image appeared on the screen. "The chamber with the off switch is only accessible by a water tunnel. We'll need someone who's a good swimmer for this." All eyes turned to Jay and Mark, the two otters in the group.

"Yeah, sure."

"What the hell, why not."

"The thing is, the water tunnel's entrance is inside a locked room, and the only guard who has a key to the door ends his shift when the club closes. So we have no way to get at it while nobody else is there."

Amy shook her head. "And you haven't come up with a way to get it, have you?"

"Well, we have... sort of. Jade was listening to you guys playing _very loud_ music in my living room- the landlord's gonna yell at me for that, stop grinning- and she thinks that if you can sign up to do one or two songs, then we can make a distraction near that guard without any others hearing the commotion over the music. The problem is, nobody can pickpocket him without being noticed. And that's the problem." said David. "And I said stop grinning, Kuma, you look like an idiot."

Darren was thinking. "Couldn't you just get someone who's good at pickpocketing?"

"That I know, no."

Melody smiled thinly. "_Je pense que je sais quelqu'un qui peut aider nous._"

Darren gave her a withering glare. "Speak **English**."

"_Pourquoi?_ We are in France, dipsh--. You know that, right?"

"Just hurry up and say who you think can help," said Jade. She sounded tired all of a sudden.

Melody smiled again. "Sure."

--------

"... but the thing is, none of us can swim," said Bentley. "So I have no idea how we're going to turn the detectors off."

The phone hanging up on the safehouse wall started ringing, causing Murray to fall out of his chair. Sly picked it up. "Hello?" he asked in a fake voice.

The reply that came was very sharp. "Cut the crap, Cooper, I know it's you."

"And who would this be?"

On the other end, Jade said, "It's Jade Akio, I believe you met my friends and I a night or two ago."

"Ah. So, what do you want?"

"We need a bit of help getting a key off a guard in a nightclub. Would you help?"

Sly glanced at Bentley. "What nightclub?"

"It's a yes-no question... and it's Dimitri's nightclub."

"Sure, we'll help."

"Good." _Click._

"Bentley," said Sly. "I think I found someone to help."

--------

It was 10:02 pm. Melody, Kuma, Jade, and Jay, who was the bass player, were setting up on the stage. The rest of the group, except David, was mingled in the crowd, close to the guard who had the key. David was by the locked door, Sly was hidden in the rafters above the guard, and Bentley and Murray were in the Cooper van outside.

Suddenly, a blast of sound came out of the amps. Melody had started the first song with a guitar note that was so loud you could hardly hear anything else. She started to sing.

"_Don't wanna be an American Idiot_

_Don't want a nation under the new mania_

_And can you read the sounds of hysteria_

_The subliminal mind f_---_ America"_

_Yep, _thought Amy,_ I knew it. I knew she'd sing this._

The group was waiting for the second song, but that didn't mean they couldn't sing along, or talk to others.

--------

The band were now two-thirds of the way throughthe second song. _Now_, thought Jade, _to start a fight._

It was easier than she expected; all of the crowd in the club seemed to be easily p--sed off. She 'accidentally' bumped into a 18-year-old lion, who quickly turned around, aiming a fist at Jade's head. She ducked, and gave him an uppercut to the chin; he staggered, and kicked out. The kick hit her square in the stomach, but she was very quick to recover. He tried to punch her in the face again, but then hit her in the shoulder.

_Well, _Jade thought, ignoring the stream of curses and insults that came from the lion, _it's working._ The guard was coming to break up the fight.

Jade ended it as soon as she saw Sly disappear into the rafters again. She dealt the lion a hard blow to his face, slightly surprised that his jaw made a cracking noise as she hit it. Jade quickly vanished into the crowd, while she heard the guard mutter, "Where'd the freak go?" to himself.

--------

The entire group was inside the water tunnel entrance room"Did you get hurt?" asked Violet. Her older sister was holding a small bag of ice on her shoulder.

"No, not really," said Jade. "The guy was one of the worst fighters I've seen. I think he was drunk or something." She shrugged.

"Well," said David, "can you swim, Sly?"

"No, I can't."

"Then it's just us two," said Jay, glancing at Mark. "You are still coming."

"Yep."

"Good." _Splash!_

--------

The water tunnel was surprisingly long, and very dark, which just made the end all the more noticeable.

Jay came up first, shocking awake one of the two guards sleeping on cots in the small chamber. The guard managed to get him gun drawn when Jay landed a roundhouse punch to the guy's face. The guard collapsed.

The other one was standing behind Jay now, gun pointing at his head. "Say goodbye," the guy said.

Jay heard a loud _crunch._ He turned around. The guard was lying on the ground, bleeding a little out his left ear. "Goodbye," Jay told the inert figure. He turned to Mark. "Nice one."

Mark was already at the control panel. "Thanks, and where's the thing for the detectors?"

Jay looked."See that menu on the screen?"

Mark said, "Yeah. There's no keyboard though."

Jay touched the sign on the screen that said 'Printing Room Security'. The computer beeped, and the screen changed. It was now a list of all the security in the printing press room, but only one wasn't crossed off the list. It said 'Motion Detectors'.

"Neat," said Mark.

--------

The mission had gone without a hitch, and Cooper had vanished as soon as it was over, probably because he had other spots to rob.

_Gambler's Ruin,_ thought Jay. _Yeah right. Nothing's gonna screw this up._

And that is the perfect example of a load of bullsh--.

_And this is the end of Chapter 9. I have nothing else to say really, except **REVIEW THE STORY**._


	10. Chapter 10: Dead End Street

_**Runaways**_

_Is there anyone besides erickdragon101 reading this? If so, will you please tell me if you exist by reviewing for once_, _because I'm getting the feeling erick's the only one reading this now._

Chapter 10: Dead End Street

It was now 11:52 pm. Most of the group were back at David's apartment, with the exception of Melody, Jade, and Violet, who had gone off in Jade'sVolkswagen Jetta to the movie theater to see a horror flick. Kuma was asleep on the couch in the living room ("When you leave, Jay," David had said, "wake him up and drag him out.") , Amy was trying to play the keyboard that Violet had left out in the living room, Darren was writing in his journal, Jay and David were talking in the study, and Jenny was looking for her purse.

"No, I told you already, I haven't seen your damn purse," yelled Amy. The long hours of staying awake were making her very irritable.

"Sorry..."

"It might be in the hallway," Jay shouted out the study door.

"Thanks. I'm going, see you tomorrow," said Jenny. Amy noticed that her purse had an odd-shaped bulge in one of its pockets. Jenny was gone before she could ask what it was.

Five minutes later, the phone rang, waking up Kuma and making him fall off the couch. Amy picked it up, trying hardnot tolaugh at him. "Hello?"

"Hi, Amy, it's me."

"Hi Mel."

"I wanted to know if you wanted to come over here... it's the Akios' house, they've got two spare beds here."

"Sure... Why are there two spare beds?"

Another phone came on the line. It was Violet. "Because one was left here by the old owners when we moved in, and the other one's from an Industrial Arts project Jade had to do last year in school."

"Oh... I'll come. And is Jade there too?" Amy asked.

"Nope, she just dropped us off and drove away somewhere."

"Okay... bye," She hung up.

--------

Jeremy Holtz was more cautious than the other leaders of the drug empire had been. When King had been murdered, Holtz had hired five security guards, three at the main door to the apartment, two at the emergency exit. He had also hired one of the most secretive,as well as legendary, contract killers of the underworld as a guard.

He was confident that the guards would be enough to keep this psycho J.A. out of his apartment, or at least give him enough time to get the hell out if they didn't.

Jeremy was a wolf, and a better planner than Richard or Lewis had been. Right now, he was watching the news, seeing if any reporter was doing a story on the empire. The media had the tendency to do one of the most retarded things imaginable, and actually give all the most important details to anything the police were investigating. Holtz had long known that the media was invaluable in telling where should be giving the most caution in working, or shut down entirely if the cops were too close.

He glanced around the room. Where the hell was the contract killer he'd hired as a guard?

--------

She was outside the window, balanced on the ledge, watching for any unknown people coming to the apartment complex.

Rena was twenty years old, and already well known for her ability to carry out any hit a customer wanted. She was a fox, very tall for her age, and a strange looking person by quite a few standards. Her fur, instead of reddish-orange, was yellow. Her eyes were all black except for the iris, which was a bright, cold blue. The clothes she were wearing were a navy pair of jeans, a purple sleeveless shirt with a picture of a Oriental-style dragon made of ice on it, a pair of black shoes, and two purple armbands with a small ying-yang symbol that went from her hands to halfway up her arms.

She was watching a blue car pull up to the building. She couldn't determine the make or model of the car in the darkness.

A person got out of the car. It looked like a 17-year-old vixen. Most likely J.A. Rena had her sniper rifle propped up on the side of the window. She took it, and looked back down. The figure wasn't there. Slightly disappointed, Rena climbed back through the window to tell Holtz what was coming.

--------

Jeremy instantly knew Rena had come in the room; the temperature in the roomdropped by around 10 degrees Celsius. Jeremy had no explanation for this, but he noticed that any part of the floor she stepped on instantly froze to ice.

"Yes?" he asked.

"You may be getting that visitor you're waiting for very soon."

Holtz knew who she meant, but he asked anyway. "And that would be?..."

"J.A."

Holtz started to get up when a loud _BOOM _rocked the building, making him collapse onto his sofa. "The hell..."

The guards at the front were yelling, the two from the back were running up to the front. There was gunfire, and they both saw the blood splatter on the floor, heard the other guards screaming.

"Follow me," said Rena, walking calmly to the fire exit. Jeremy followed. A bullet came straight for Rena.

She did nothing but glance at it. A thin pillar of ice shot out of the floor and caught the bullet. Holtz stared. "How-"

Rena was already at the door. "Hurry up," was all she said to her current employer. Holtz ran like hell straight out the door, down the stairs.

J.A. got to the door around seven seconds later, wiping blood off the dagger she was holding. The yellow fox, nor the wolf, were in sight. It didn't matter, though; she just jumped down the middle of the staircase, and landed right in front of Holtz. She pulled out the gun. "Hello," she said.

"Goodbye," said Rena, appearing out of nowhere. There was a dragon made of ice, identical to the one on her shirt, behind her.

Rena punched the surprised vixen in the face, sending her out over the railing, down the side of the building, out of sight. J.A. never made a sound.

Rena turned to Holtz, who looked like he might faint. "I believe that I will receive a pay raise for this?"

Jeremy was staring at the icy dragon. It was mind-bending to look at. How could this thing exist? "Uh, yeah, yeah you will."

"Good," she said. And with that, she, as well as the dragon, vanished in front of his eyes. _What the hell just happened?_ he thought.

--------

Down on the ground, an unfazed J.A. picked herself up off the ground. She had just fallen 4 storeys, but was unhurt except for her bruised shoulder. She turned to leave, and saw the streetlight glaring off the side of that dragon. It breathed, not fire, but something bright blue that looked like fire, at her. She jumped to the side, the ball of frozen flames just missing her. The wall it hit was covered in spikes of ice.

The vixen shot at it with her gun, shattering its head. She bolted for her car, got in, reversed it out of the lot, and hit the gas.

The car went nowhere, tires squealing. A glance in the rearview mirror told her that the entire back end was covered in a block of ice. She went for the door. A shadow appeared at the window. It was that yellow vixen.

J.A. jumped out the other door, and ran as fast as she could toward the three other vehicles parked there.

She got into a silver GM pickup, reversed it out and shot it out of the parking lot, into the street. Looking back, she saw the yellow fox and the dragon, now back in one piece, watching her leave.

_There's a new name on my list, _thought the serial killer.

_And that is Chapter 10. If you have any suggestions/questions_,_ you can ask._ _And yes,Sly will be in the next chapter. So don't ask that._

_P.S.- Another good story I want to point out; To Catch a Cop_ _by Captain Amelia_, _one of the few romance stories that I didn't get bored partway through, so it must be pretty damned good._

_P.P.S.- Octovarius Kaiser Scott, if you're reading this, BITE ME. Go get an education. Or a life, your choice._


	11. Chapter 11: Journals

_**Runaways**_

_Wazzup people? Thx to erickdragon101 for reviewing, and Heiduska (hope I got that right) for giving me **nine reviews in a row,** and Kitty Terula for reviweing, too But, I've got something to say to you erick; that "poem" thing you wrote about Octo Kaiser, well, that was **low.** Very low. At Octo's level low. So don't do that again, plz. It made you look like the four-year-old that Kaiser is mentally. Not good... On a completely different note, despite the fact I said Sly was in this Chapter last time, I changed things around a bit to make more sense (I hope), so it turned out he's not in this Chapter. Sorry 'bout that._

Chapter 11: Journals

"Jade, where's your car?" asked Violet. It was now 9:30 am, and she'd just noticed that her sister's blue Jetta wasn't in the parking lot outside.

"It got stolen. Again," said Jade wearily. She had slept for about four hours.

The phone rang. Jade picked it up. "What?... I'd come, but my car's gone... Really... David, calm down _please_... Ask Jay if he can come pick me up in an hour or two... Bye. " She hung up.

"What did he want?" asked Amy.

"Nothing. Nothing important, anyway."

--------

Two hours later, the doorbell rang.

"What?" yelled Jade.

"It's me. Open up."

Violet opened the door. "Hi, Jay. You're her for my sis, right?"

"Yep... Is Melody here?"

"Uhh... yeah, why?"

"Just a sec." Jay walked into the living room, were Melody and Amy were playing a card game, waiting for Violet to get back for her turn. "Mel, David wants you to come too."

Melody looked up. "Sure."

--------

David had sent Jade and Jay out on a recon mission, leaving him and Melody there at his apartment, because there was something he wanted her to do.

"I imagine you've heard of the J.A. killer?" he asked.

"Yeah. You narrowed it down to Jade and Jenny, didn't you?"

David frowned. "How'd you know?"

"Because I searched the police archives, and those were the two that matched."

He nodded. "Yes, than you know why I want to know who it is, correct?"

"Yep."

"Good. I managed to get both Jade and Jenny's journals here. I want you to go through them, to see if there's any evidence, clues, who is the killer," David said.

"So you want me to go through their private stuff to see which is a psycho?"

"Er... yes."

Melody grinned. "Great."

--------

Melody was in the study by herself; Dave had left for a meeting with Bentley, to see if there was a way they could help each other again. She was going through Jade's journal first, because she suspected that Jade was a lunatic. Jade was the one who had dyed her fur green and wore the mildly gothic clothes, after all.

Turning the pages, there was nothing incriminating yet, except perhaps the hundreds of drawings in the margins of the pages, some of which were pictures of knives, daggers, or swords. That was one thing that Melody, and Amy, had noticed when they went by Jade's room; one of the walls looked like a museum display case of various sharp metal weapons. The samurai sword was the one that Melody thought was the coolest-looking.

The song lyrics in her journal were sort of dark, but nothing overly disturbing. Melody turned to the page dated 10/30/05. Today.

It was completely blank. Not surprising, seeing that she probably only wrote in it during the evening.

Then, in Jade's flowing way of writing, four words appeared on the page: _**Drop the book ,Mel**._ Melody dropped it, out of shock. _What the..._

--------

Jay could hear Jade laughing softly to herself in the backseat. He turned around. "What's so funny?"

Jade was reading a book that she had brought with her. "Oh, nothing." To herself she thought, _Never read my dairy again, Mel._

--------

Melody hastily put Jade's journal back on the table, and grabbed Jenny's diary. The dates in it went back to January 2003.

Melody went through, ignoring the expected cheerful illustrations and entries, until 07/23/03. The writing on this page was hardly legible, it was so shaky, and the spots where the pen ink was blotted out by water, or tears, didn't help much. But Melody could still read one line: _Someone murdered my father today._

Melody read, reread, this sentence in disbelief. Her dad had been killed? Not good. It could be her.

The next few months were completely blank. Then, Melody found a hieroglyphic circle in black ink. It looked... sort of satanic, for some reason. She touched it, and quickly drew her finger back.

"Ouch." There was a cut on her finger in the shape of the piece of the circle she had touched. But her attention was quickly brought back to the evil-looking drawing.

The black ink was now blood red, distorting slightly. It looked like there were drips forming on it, drips that would fall up.

The blooddrops did fall up, spattering the white ceiling with red. Then, it went from drops to a steady stream, to a thick torrent of the crimson liquid shooting up, flooding the ceiling. Melody backed away from Jenny's dairy. It looked like a horror movie scene.

Something hit her in the chin. She looked down at the floor. The beige carpet wasn't beige anymore, it was turning dark red, the drips going up. _This, _thought Melody, _is sure as hell not normal._ It was like being in a rainstorm, only a lot more... surreal.

The walls were running red, as well, the windows, all of the room, save for one part. The hieroglyphic circle was on the wall, huge, the only thing on the walls not coated in crimson.

By now, Melody was at the door, pulling on it, attempting to get it open. It wouldn't budge. She went back to the table, trying to wring out her shirt, now completely soaked from the blood falling upward from the floor. Something grabbed her leg.

Melody looked back. It was a giant, bloody hand coming out of the ceiling that had grabbed her. It yanked her off her feet, trying to drag her into the crimson ocean suspended above. Melody frantically grabbed a leg of the table, hoping it would weigh enough to keep her down.

It did for ten seconds, then the hand gave a hard tug, making the table scrape across the wet floor. Jenny's diary fell off and hit the floor.

Everything abruptly went back to normal, the ceiling white, the carpet beige, the walls that bluish-green color. Even her clothes were dry.

_I can guess who J.A. is, _thought Melody. But she went back, and turned the page. _Yep,_ _a list of names._ She read the list.

1- Richard Driscoll X

2- Lewis King X

3- Jeremy Holtz

4- Jade Akio

5- Violet Akio

6- David Brooks

7- Carmelita Fox

8- Jay Atkinson

9- Kuma Morito

10- Shirley Thompson X

11- Melody Cortez

12- Rena

_Uh-oh. Not good. _Melody went to pick up the phone, the rain of blood still fresh in her mind. She dialed. "Hello? David?"

David picked up. "Yes?"

"I know who it is."

--------

Carmelita was in her office, reading the latest file on Cooper, trying to see where he was going to rob next. It was hard work, and she was getting restless. She hated paperwork.

Carmelita frowned as a shape started to draw itself on the file she was reading. Some sort of circular rune. Why did that appear on her file?

The hieroglyph turned red, started to distort.

--------

The secretary that entered Inspector Fox's office was greeted with a strange scene.

The room was empty, completely unchanged from when the secretary had last come in, except for two things; Carmelita wasn't there, and the writing on the wall that said "She isn't dead... _yet_ -J.A." in red writing.

_The end of Chapter 11. R. E. V. I. E. W. P. L. Z._


	12. Chapter 12: Twisted

_**Runaways**_

_It's me again. And erickdragon101... be afraid, **be very afraid.**_ _Heiduska, you might wanna lay off the coffee for a while, you're a little hyper... :-p_

Chapter 12: Twisted

The entire group of teens were sitting at the round table in the study. David hadn't told any of them why he'd called this meeting, but it was painfully obvious to most of the group, Melody guessed, because there were a few glances toward Jenny and Jade, who were sitting opposite each other. Melody was leaning against a wall, keeping her pistol hidden from view.

"I have some bad news," started David, standing at the front of the room, "if any of you have been following the recent news reports on TV, you will know that a serial killer calling themself J.A. has murdered the leaders one of Paris' crime networks, as well as cause the disappearance of an investigator at Interpol. With some searching," he continued, noticing that Jade didn't seem to be listening, but Jenny was paying attention to everything he was saying, "we've found who the killer is."

"Who?" asked Amy.

Melody brought her gun into view, and said, "Jennifer Christina Arden, please stand up."

Jenny looked confused. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Melody found a hit list in your writing." said David.

Jenny was still bewildered. "Why are you telling me to stand up... and where did you find a list?"

"It was in your dairy."

"I haven't used my diary in a year and a half." She sounded disbelieving now. "I haven't _seen _my diary in a month."

"Right. And how did that list get in there then?"

"_Je ne sais pas._"

Melody was getting irritated. "We know it's you. **Stand up**."

"I'm serious, I haven't even seen my dairy for a month, so how could I write that, and _it is not me_."

Now it was Jade. "It is you. Face it, you're caught, it's over. The three crooks on your list killed your dad, and the cop assigned to the case which went unsolved was Inspector Fox, but why were we, your friends, on the hit list?"

There was an almost audible _click_ as something happened to Jenny; her eyes went from brown to blood red, and her voice changed completely. "_I don't have any friends,_" she snarled, standing, knocking over her chair, pulling a gun out of her jacket pocket, aiming it at Jade. Melody fired at Jenny the same time Jenny fired at Jade.

Melody's bullet hit the wall behind where Jenny had been; she had vanished into thin air. Jade was still sitting calmly, looking at where Jenny had been. Jenny's bullet was suspended in the air, two inches from her head.

"What the hell..." said Kuma. "Jade, you should be _dead_."

"I know." she said flatly, picking the bullet out of the air it seemed to be stuck in. "I knew Jenny had to be screwed up. No one can be copletely positive and not be cracked."

There was a long pause. Then Amy asked: "Shouldn't we see where she went?"

David jolted back to reality. "Oh, er, yeah." He went to his computer. "I've got a tracker in her car and- "

"You have a tracker in her _car?_" asked Mark incredulously.

"Yeah. And..." David frowned. "Her car is moving out of the city. Towards the woods."

Nobody had noticed Jade had left, dialing a number on her cell phone as she left.

--------

"Hello, Cooper? It's me again."

Over the phone, he answered. "And who would 'me' be?"

"Jade Akio. The others finally figured out Jenny was the psycho, not me. Dave's got her car on a tracker, and she's heading for the summer-cottage area of the countryside."

"And you want us to go with you. I'm sorry, but if it's not going to help with our heist..."

Jade cut him off. "We suspect Jenny's got a hostage or two in a cabin, and there's a very good chance one of them is Inspector Fox. Carmelita."

There was a short silence. Then; "I'll come."

"Thank you, goodbye." _Click._

_Yes, short Chapter, I know. Things will get better (longer)_ _next Chapter._


	13. Chapter 13: Out of Mind

_**Runaways**_

_It's Chapter 13. I really have nothing to say. Again. Oh yeah, thx erickdragon101 & Heiduska 4 your reviews._ _That's about it as of right now. 11/10/05... 42 jours plus jusqu'a Noel. Oops, french_, _sorry._

Chapter 13: Out of Mind

There were three vehicles driving down the forested road: a silver Honda Civic, a black Porsche with a realistic flame design on the hood, and a blue van with a symbol that looked like a raccoon face on the front.

Melody was letting Jade drive her Porsche, because, as Violet put it, "No offence, but you suck at driving." Jade was in the driver's seat, Melody in the passenger, Violet and Kuma in the back. Kuma was playing his PSP with the headphones on again, so he was in his own little world, not listening to anyone. Jade could've maybe heard what he was playing if Melody turned down her MP3, which sounded like it was at a volume normally reserved for movie theaters and jet takeoffs.

In the Civic, David was in the back, hunched over his laptop, answering the occasional question that came from Amy, who was next to him. Jay was driving, and Darren was asleep. How the hell he could sleep when he knew that they were diving straight toward a cabin with an insane murderer was beyond David. He was a little on edge.

In the van, everything was quiet. Bentley was in the back, typing on his computer, Murray was driving, and Sly was staring out the window, not really seeing anything, absorbed in his own thoughts.

There was still five minutes worth of driving left as the vehicles turned onto the dirt road leading to where Jenny's car was parked.

--------

Carmelita slowly came back into consciousness, opening her eyes slightly. She shut them quickly.

She was lying on an uncomfortable cot in what looked like a prison cell. The walls were spread over with mold, and the floor had a carpet of dirt and debris on it. The single light was flickering randomly, giving her a headache. Where the hell was she?

Carmelita got up, walked over to the door. It had barred windows, and as she quickly found out, was unlocked. She walked out of the cell.

The hall was even worse than the cell, as besides the moldy walls and filthy floor _and_ the flickering, greenish-bright halogen lights barely lighting the place, the walls were covered in graffiti.

Very disturbing graffiti. Skulls, gaping wounds, several hieroglyphic circles identical to the on that had started the rain of blood in her office, and messages. A lot of messages. _Nobody cares_, in particular, was the most common one. Somebody was very troubled, for sure.

Halfway down this hall, a piece of paper from a small book, maybe a diary, was lying on the ground. Carmelita picked it up, but it was impossible to read in the poor lighting; all she could see was the signature _J.A_. She put it in her coat pocket, and kept going. She'd read it later, after she knew where she was.

--------

"**Will you turn that down?**" yelled Violet, finally getting Melody's attention. She paused the song she was listening to, "Darkness" by Peter Gabriel. "What?"

"Turn it dow- "

"Nevermind, we're hear." said Jade. "Wake Kuma up."

"Sure." said Violet. She punched him in the arm, abruptly bringing Kuma out of his game.

"Wadda you want?" he asked. He didn't sound happy about the punch in the arm.

"We're here. So get your face out of that game." With that, Violet left the car, checking that her weapon. The dual-barreled pistol in her bookbag that she was carrying had a full clip. Good.

She'd need it.

Violet saw Melody, Jay, and Cooper all slip into the decrepit cabin. Nobody else was out of their cars yet. She followed them in.

--------

Carmelita had found a staircase, but it only led down. Although she was willing to bet the cells (one of which had what was left of a wanted drug dealer, Shirley Thompson) were a little more securely guarded than what she'd seen so far, the stairs were the only way out, and there were no guards.

Still, she hesitated. The images of the slashed bodies of all J.A.'s victims suddenly came into her head. That was why those initials seemed familiar; her headache was keeping her from thinking well.

By the time she got to the bottom of the stairs, Carmelita was wondering if she was walking into a trap. Who would leave a cell door unlocked if there was a prisoner inside if they didn't want them to escape?

She was in another hallway, much cleaner, only covered in dust this time, and with fully functional lights. Her headache was already starting to clear up.

Carmelita remembered the slip of paper in her pocket. She took it out. What was written on there distracted her from her current predicament.

_I think something's happening to me. Last night I woke up to find my clothes covered in blood, and a huge bruise on my arm, and I have no idea where they came from. It's not the only time this has happened, though. Sometimes I black out, and when I come to, I'm always back at my home, with bloody clothes. Once I found a knife in my hand when I came around. I'm starting to hear some voice in the back of my head telling me to hurt people._

_This is scaring me._

Carmelita dropped the page. What _did_ happen to J.A.? The voices in her head part was what she found the creepiest. Why didn't she go to therapy beforethings went this far?

A sound brought Carmelita back to reality. There was someone upstairs.

The person was screaming.

--------

Melody, Jay, and Sly had split up when they had entered the place, each following one of the three trails of footprints in the dust on the floor. When Violet had come in, she followed the same path as Sly had gone down.

The trail Melody was following had lead to a living room. Boarded-up fireplace, overstuffed chairs with slashes in them, and a couch facing an old miniature TV, all covered in dust. The lights were off, so the room was lit only by the moonlight coming in the two windows.

The TV was what caught Melody's attention. The screen was divided into four sections, all showing a grainy, black-and-white view from different security cameras. One showed Jay going down a corridor, glancing into each room, gun ready. One showed some twenty-something vixen in a trenchcoat, sleeveless t-shirt and jeans trying to find her way out of a maze-like bunch of halls. Another showed Violet, following Cooper. The other was just hissing static.

Melody heard a dripping sound. She looked up to see that damned hieroglyph circle thing drawing itself on the wall behind the television.

The glass on the TV distorted, then an arm made of glass shot out and grabbed her arm. She screamed.

--------

All the doors that Carmelita had tried to open so far were locked. It was frustrating to be stuck in a maze of the same dusty corridors.

Carmelita stopped. She heard someone crying behind one of the doors around the corner. She ran toward the noise, and knocked on the door it seemed to be coming behind.

The crying stopped. An anxious voice said, "Go away before something happens. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Carmelita backed away from the door, then took a running slam into it, breaking the single lock, smashing the door open.

The room was completely empty. Nobody was in sight. Then Carmelita heard a faint noise as someone tried to pull themself farther into a corner of the room she couldn't see. Carmelita turned to see Jenny Arden huddled in the corner, looking terrified.

"Please leave. _Please_." said Jenny. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Then why are you killing people?"

"I don't want to... I black out and next thing I know, I'm at home and someone's dead. I'm scaring myself, and I can't stop it." Then her eyes went red, and her voice changed. "_But I'll stop you._"

She pulled out a gun. Carmelita noticed that it was her shock pistol in the split second before it went off, blowing a fist-sized hole in the wall next to her head. She bolted.

--------

Melody was now fighting with the glass arm coming out of the TV, struggling to break its grip on her arm.

It wasn't going well; the thing was tightening its hold on her arm. It felt like her arm might break.

The air in the room suddenly went cold, dropping by around 10 degrees Celsius. The hieroglyph turned into ice and shattered; the arm let go of her and was pulled, desperately attempting to grab a hold of something to stop it, back into the TV screen, which went back to normal.

Melody heard the sound of something rapidly freezing, and saw the windows were now covered over with ice. A large shadow shaped like a dragon fell across the glass, blotting out the light. Melody heard the breathing of something big. She ran the hell out of the room, and went down the same trail Jay had gone down.

Had she known what was happening to both him, as well as Violet and Sly, she probably would have gone out the door instead.

_And there is Chapter 13. Lucky number 13. __Please review this._


	14. Chapter 14: Fallout

_**Runaways**_

_Hello once again. I just noticed I never had a disclaimer yet... oops._

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights to Sly Cooper, or Carmelita, Bentley, or Murray, they all belong to Sucker Punch. I don't own any of the cars mentioned; they belong to their respective companies. 'American Idiot' belongs to Green Day, 'Signal to Noise' and 'Darkness' belong to Peter Gabriel, and 'War on Drugs' belongs to Barenaked Ladies._

_Ok, well now that that's done with, I'd like to apologize for how long it took to get this chapter up. You see, the documents manager refused to let me submit this for no apparent reason. That annoyed me to no end, but it eventually worked, so I feel a little less frustrated with it. Here's the chapter._

Chapter 14: Fallout

_**I'm scared of swimming in the sea**_

_**With dark shapes moving under me**_

_**And every fear I swallow**_

_**Makes me small**_

_**Inconsequential things occur**_

_**Alarms are triggered, memories stir**_

_**It's not the way it has to be**_

--------

Despite the fact that both David and Bentley had told the members of their groups to not go running in without a plan, Sly, Violet, Melody, Jay, and now Jade and Kuma, had all vanished into the cabin. Bentley was frustrated; David was angry. Why did nobody ever listen to what they were told?

--------

Violet had now caught up with Sly, in some narrow corridor made of stones that was lit only by some dim blue light. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet, and despite the fact they both knew Jenny was in here somewhere, they were falling into a false sense of security.

--------

Jay was still way ahead of Melody. He was in a torch-lit medieval hall, all made of the same grimy brown stones.

He came to a spot were the hall suddenly tilted down, and became circular, like a giant pipe made of brown cobblestone.

He continued walking with his handgun ready.

--------

**_I'm afraid of what I do not know_**

_**I hate being undermined**_

_**I'm afraid I could be a devil man**_

_**And I'm scared to be divine**_

_**Don't mess with me, my fuse is short**_

_**Beneath this skin these fragments caught**_

--------

Sly and Violet had been walking through the never-ending halls that seemed to stretch out to nowhere. The dim blue light was making both of them feel sleepy, no matter how much they tried to stay alert.

They rounded yet another corner, and a sound suddenly started. It was a continuous, muffled screech of something metal spinning extremely fast. Sly stopped; Violet kept walking. He stopped her with his cane as quickly as he could. She seemed to snap awake.

"What the heck is that noise?" she asked, backing away from the corridor she had almost walked down.

"Sounds like a bunch of saws, but..."

"_Mais quoi_?"

"I have no idea where they are... Wait." Sly could barely see a seam in the wall. The noise seemed to be coming from behind it. "You see that?" He pointed at the seam.

"Yeah," said Violet, and she took a small rock out of her pocket.

"What's with the rock?" Sly asked.

"Watch." She threw the rock in front of the seam.

The seam flipped open, and a circular saw that was at least 6 feet in diameter flew out, and sliced the piece of granite in half. Just as fast as the huge saw came out, it retracted back into the wall. The seam sealed itself.

"Umm... you got an idea about how to get past this? There are at least twelve of those seam things on this hall," asked Violet. She was a bit scared of what could've, _would've_, happened if she had kept walking.

Sly noticed a vent in the wall, near the ceiling. "Are you claustrophobic?"

"Yeah, a bit."

"Then you're not gonna like this."

--------

_**When I allow it to be**_

_**There's no control over me**_

_**I have my fears **_

_**But they do not have me**_

--------

Carmelita was still running in that maze of halls, dodging the shots that Jenny aimed at her. How the scrawny girl was keeping up with her for this long was beyond her.

"_Run, retard, run!_" The voice coming from Jenny wasn't hers; it was a rough, growling yell.

_Will you stop with the stupid threats, _thought Carmelita

A door just a little ways down the hall was abruptly sucked into its room, leaving an empty doorway.

A thick pillar of ice shot out, caught Carmelita, and disappeared into the doorway it came out of.

Two seconds later, a second pillar caught Jenny as she was turning to run away from the room.

--------

_**Walking through the undergrowth **_

_**To the house in the woods**_

_**The deeper I go**_

_**The darker it gets**_

_**I peer through the window**_

_**Knock at the door**_

_**And the monster I was so afraid of**_

_**Is curled up on the floor**_

_**I cry until I laugh**_

--------

Halfway down the stone corridor, Jay heard a loud _click_. He froze, and saw the exit of the tunnel was sealed shut with a black iron door. And judging from the even louder _screech _of something metal behind him, the other end of the tunnel was sealed off too.

_This can't be a good sign._

He turned in time to see a colossal round boulder resting at the top of the sloped hall. It was rocking back and forth slightly. If it came down, there was nowhere for Jay to go.

It started rolling down.

_Oh sh--._

Jay started backing away, but he knew he couldn't get out of the boulder's way. He only had one idea. He checked the handgun's clip to make sure there were enough bullets left.

--------

_**Flashbacks coming in every night**_

_**Don't tell me everything's alright**_

--------

The door of the room swung shut and locked itself. Carmelita and Jenny were both pinned securely to the wall by a sheet of ice.

Carmelita only recognized one of the three people standing in the room, with weapons drawn. The one she knew about was an infamous contract killer named Rena. The other two, a small bear and a green-furred vixen wearing black clothes, were probably her associates.

Rena was holding an ornatescythe in one hand and an Uzi submachine gun in the other. The bear had a double-barreled pistol, and the vixen had two long, thin daggers out.

The vixen spoke. Her voice dripped sarcasm. "Comfortable, Jenny? No? That's too bad. Maybe if you weren't completely insane, I'd feel sorry... but probably not."

Jenny looked extremely scared. "It's not my fault! I black out and then when I wake up, I'm at home with blood on my clothes. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"So, you say you have no control over what you do. I doubt that you could make your own hideout or kill several people by falling asleep," said Rena. "You'd have to realize that nobody will believe a lie if you don't think and find all the things that will unravel it. For example, how did Inspector Fox get here if you didn't bring her here? I know she vanished from her office this morning, and that her car was still in the parking lot, so don't tell me she drove here."

There was a three second silence before Carmelita blurted, "How did you know that I vanished? It wouldn't be on the news and-"

"I like to keep tabs on where all Interpol officers are. Particularly the ones who have tried to find me before. Do you remember the case you had involving the murder of John S. Levine?"

"Yes. He was an overly religious maniac who killed his daughter when she switched religions to Buddhism."

"He didn't kill his daughter."

"Yes he did. He stabbed her in the neck and ditched her in the middle of the wilderness in winter. She was frozen solid when she was found."

"Do you recall her name?"

"Yes, her name was..." Carmelita stopped when she remembered the name. "Her name was Rena."

"So who do you think killed him?"

Carmelita was silent. What was she supposed to say?

Jenny slumped down in her icy prison.

The bear said, "She's out."

The green vixen rolled her eyes. "You don't say."

Some sort of black vapor came off Jenny, and floated across the room.

"What the hell is that?" The bear took a step away from it. Rena readied her scythe.

"Nothing good."

--------

_**When I allow it to be**_

_**There's no control over me**_

_**I own my fear **_

_**So it doesn't own me**_

--------

Jay shot at the boulder, trying to knock a big enough piece off so he could avoid getting crushed. He'd emptied about half the clip into the thing, but it wasn't working. Yet. He hoped it would. He didn't want to be steam rolled by two tons of rock.

There was a loud_ crack_ sound, and a piece slid off the side of the boulder, crumbling to dust. Jay flattened himself against the wall as the thing rolled by. It collided with the iron door instead, and with a _crunch_ followed by the scream of twisting metal, the boulder broke apart, sending up so much dust Jay couldn't see a single thing. When the dust cleared, there was a big gaping hole where the door used to be.

He could faintly hear someone yelling from behind the door at the top. "Hey, Jay, you okay?" It was Melody.

"Yeah."

"You anywhere near this door?"

"No."

"Good. Cover your eyes."

Jay got halfway through asking why when two gunshots sounded, and the door fell inwards. "What the hell did you do?"

Melody came down the tunnel. Grinning, she answered, "I shot out the hinges. Pretty fun doing that."

"Uh..."

"You think I'm mental, don't you?"

Jay ignored the question, and started walking down the tunnel, which flattened out behind the wrecked door. Melody follow him, trying not to step on any sharp metal shards.

There was a steep circular staircase just outside of the door. Jay went down first. Melody stopped to take a piece of the iron door out of the bottom of her shoe, so when she heard Jay's yell of frustration, it made her jump about three feet in the air. She rushed down to see what the hell the yell had been about.

Jay was glaring at a haphazard rock wall blocking the stairs about halfway down. "I didn't... come down here... and nearly get killed... to be stopped... _by a wall of f---ing rocks!_"he roared. He started to punch the wall, pulverizing the rocks every time his fist hit the wall. He pulled a rock the size of a big rig's wheel from the wall, and the blockage collapsed.

"Ok, what the hell was that?" asked Melody.

"Proof that anger management doesn't work." Jay replied. He continued down the stairs.

"Oooookaaaay..." said Melody to herself. "That was weird." She started down after him again.

--------

_**Walking through the undergrowth**_

_**To the house in the woods**_

_**The deeper I go**_

_**The darker it gets**_

_**I peer through the window**_

_**Knock at the door...**_

--------

Violet didn't like crawling in the vents. They were small, narrow, and dusty. She had sneezed violently when she had crawled in. But a sneeze attack was better than having to dodge those saw blades.

After a while crawling through the dark, Sly dropped out of the vents. They were in some dusty hallway, and there were fist-sized holes punched in the wall all around him. They looked like they were made by a shock pistol.

_Carmelita must be somewhere around here, _he thought. Behind him, Violet tumbled out of the vent.

Coughing, she said, "Remind me never to go in a vent again."

"Never go in a vent again."

"Oh, haha, that was funny," she said dryly, but she was grinning.

Sly started down the hall, following the bullet holes in the wall. "Follow me."

"I got nothing better to do." Violet said.

--------

_**The monster I was so afraid of**_

_**Lies curled up on the floor**_

--------

David and Bentley had sent Murray and the O'Neils out to patrol along the area around the cabin. David was in his Civic, and Bentley was in the Cooper van, listening to the twins argue about who was going back to the cars; they both wanted to stay out.

"Bentley," said David over the walkie-talkie. "Can you get Sly yet?"

"No, his binocucom's still out of range." Bentley was mystified as to why the radio in the thing was dead; they worked before.

"Maybe there's something blocking the signal. You tried boosting the signal's power?"

"Yes, and- ," he started. A loud _whump _had come from Darren's walkie-talkie.

"What was that?" the two in the cars heard Amy ask.

" 'The Murray' knows not."

"Haha, very funny. Can't you just say 'I' for once?" There was a pause. "Darren, were are you?"

Nothing but static Then...

"_DARREN!" _Another _whump _came from Amy's line, then a third came from Murray's.

David was starting to panic. "Amy? Darren? Murray? Hello? ANYONE?"

Something flew up over the cabin roof and smashed through the Cooper van's windshield. Bentley picked it up.

It was Murray's binocucom.

He was disconnected from the world for a few seconds before he heard David scream over the radio, saw the silver Honda Civic flip into the air, and land on top of the van, crushing the roof in.

Something hit his head, and everything went black.

--------

_**I cry until I laugh**_

_Well, there, this chapter's over. Reviews are needed so I don't forget about this... like that would ever happen._

_P.S.- I'm thinking of making a drawing of a character or two from this... if you want a pic of anyone in particular, tell me._


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